Biochar Amendment Affects Soil Water and CO2 Regime during Capsicum Annuum Plant Growth

Horel, Ágota; Tóth, Eszter; Gelybó, Györgyi; Dencső, Márton; Farkas, Csilla

doi:10.3390/agronomy9020058

Cited by 13 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This leads to a more 'closed' cycle of production (and less external inputs) [37]. Note, that this more closed production cycle requires both more advanced agronomic skills [38,39] and additional links within the value chain, such as application of biochar [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] or phosphate salt recovery from the digestates [50,51]. Therefore, practical guidelines for industrial crops are also under development within the MAGIC project.…”

Section: Definition and Methodology Of Marginal Land Low-input Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marginal Agricultural Land Low-Input Systems for Biomass Production

et al. 2019

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This study deals with approaches for a social-ecological friendly European bioeconomy based on biomass from industrial crops cultivated on marginal agricultural land. The selected crops to be investigated are: Biomass sorghum, camelina, cardoon, castor, crambe, Ethiopian mustard, giant reed, hemp, lupin, miscanthus, pennycress, poplar, reed canary grass, safflower, Siberian elm, switchgrass, tall wheatgrass, wild sugarcane, and willow. The research question focused on the overall crop growth suitability under low-input management. The study assessed: (i) How the growth suitability of industrial crops can be defined under the given natural constraints of European marginal agricultural lands; and (ii) which agricultural practices are required for marginal agricultural land low-input systems (MALLIS). For the growth-suitability analysis, available thresholds and growth requirements of the selected industrial crops were defined. The marginal agricultural land was categorized according to the agro-ecological zone (AEZ) concept in combination with the marginality constraints, so-called ‘marginal agro-ecological zones’ (M-AEZ). It was found that both large marginal agricultural areas and numerous agricultural practices are available for industrial crop cultivation on European marginal agricultural lands. These results help to further describe the suitability of industrial crops for the development of social-ecologically friendly MALLIS in Europe.

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Section: Definition and Methodology Of Marginal Land Low-input Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marginal Agricultural Land Low-Input Systems for Biomass Production

et al. 2019

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“…Several studies demonstrated the capability of Hydrus 1D to simulate hydrological processes in the vadose-zone of a podzolic soil [40][41][42]. More recently, Hydrus 1D was also successfully used for simulating hydrological processes after biochar application [43,44], and it can be a valuable tool for predicting hydrological responses of different biochar amendment rates [10]. In this study, Hydrus 1D simulations were based on the van Genuchten-Mualem model [39,45] with a 1 cm discretization of a 1-m soil column, free drainage at the lower boundary, and a variable flux at the upper boundary.…”

Section: Swc Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biochar has gained much attention in recent years as a popular and widely proposed soil amendment due to the relative ease of availability, the positive effects on the physiochemical properties of soils and the corresponding possible increase of soil fertility. Biochar benefits relevant to agriculture are decreasing soil bulk density [5,6], increasing soil water content (SWC) and water holding capacity (WHC) [7][8][9][10], decreasing saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS) [11][12][13], mitigating nitrogen leaching [14,15], lowering evaporation [16] and thus 2 of 15 increased water availability, and enhancing the bioavailability of key nutrients [17,18]. Biochar is further cited for its carbon sequestration potential and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions [15,17,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Biochar Application Rates on the Hydraulic Properties of an Agricultural-Use Boreal Podzol

et al. 2019

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Boreal agriculture struggles with soils of lower agronomic value, most of which are sandy with a low water holding capacity (WHC) and prone to nutrient leaching. Biochar amendments are associated with positive effects on soil hydraulic properties and enhanced nutrient retention. However, these effects are strongly related to feedstock type and pyrolysis parameters and depend on biochar application rates and soil types. While biochar could increase the productivity of boreal agriculture by improving water and nutrient use efficiency, little is known about its effects on hydraulic processes in podzol. In this study, we investigated the effects of biochar rates (10, 20, 40, 80 Mg carbon ha−1) and maturity on soil hydrology for an agriculturally used Podzol in Labrador, Canada. The in-situ soil water content (SWC) and weather data over an entire growing season were analysed. Hydrus 1D simulations were used to estimate changes in water fluxes. SWC showed clear differentiation among storage parameters (i.e., initial, peak and final SWC) and kinetic parameters (i.e., rate of SWC change). Storage parameters and soil wetting and drying rates were significantly affected by biochar rates and its maturity. The magnitude of the changes in SWC after either wetting or drying events was statistically not affected by the biochar rate. This confirms that biochar mostly affected the WHC. Nevertheless, reductions in cumulative lower boundary fluxes were directly related to biochar incorporation rates. Overall, biochar had positive effects on hydrological properties. The biochar rate of 40 Mg C ha−1 was the most beneficial to agriculturally relevant hydraulic conditions for the tested Podzol.

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“…The experimental setup allowed plants to grow under quasi-natural conditions, as pots were placed outside to receive natural radiation temperature and moisture effects. Rain-fed pots were irrigated occasionally as necessary in the lack of natural precipitation to avoid severe drought stress on plants [25]. Plant growth stages were determined based on weekly observations of number of plant leaves, flowers, and fruits in different development stages for each plant.…”

Section: Soil Collection and Site Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Basic soil physical characteristics were determined prior to the experiment [6,25]. Soil volumetric water contents (SWC) were measured by oven drying soil samples (24 h; 105 • C) of a known volume (10 cm 3 ).…”

Section: Physical and Chemical Characteristics Of The Soilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Nutrient Dynamics and Nitrogen Fixation Rate Changes over Plant Growth in Temperate Soil

et al. 2019

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Research on the use of soil enhancer materials such as biochar from soil chemical perspective still provide differing results; therefore, investigations focusing on soil-biochar-plant interactions are still necessary to constrain our understanding of complex biochar effects. The present study investigated the changes in biological nitrogen fixation rates (BNF) and overall nutrient dynamics (NO3−, NH4+, total N, K2O, and P2O5) during the growth of Capsicum annuum (pepper) in pot experiments amended with biochar made of paper fiber sludge and grain husk. Four treatments were studied with 0, 0.5%, 2.5%, and 5.0% (by weight) added biochar (BC) amount to temperate silt loam soil. Peppers were planted at 2–4 leave stages and grown for the duration of 12.5 weeks. Our results showed that total nitrogen had relatively small changes in all treatments over time compared to the dynamic changes observed in the case of inorganic nutrients. NO3−-N and NH4+-N abundances presented a continuous decrease during the course of the study after an initial increase. The pepper plant facilitated the BNF rates to triple in the control soils, while plants were in the growing phase (weeks 1–6), which further increased an additional 61% by harvesting (week 12). A high amount of biochar addition suppressed potential BNF rates of the investigated soil, indicating its potentially negative effects on soil indigenous microbial communities if added in excess. We also found a plateau in plant biomass production that after reaching an optimal (2.5%) biochar amendment in the soils, and excess biochar addition did not result in significant changes in the soils’ pH to achieve better nutrient (potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous) use or crop growth.

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Biochar Amendment Affects Soil Water and CO2 Regime during Capsicum Annuum Plant Growth

Cited by 13 publications

References 48 publications

Marginal Agricultural Land Low-Input Systems for Biomass Production

Marginal Agricultural Land Low-Input Systems for Biomass Production

Effect of Biochar Application Rates on the Hydraulic Properties of an Agricultural-Use Boreal Podzol

Soil Nutrient Dynamics and Nitrogen Fixation Rate Changes over Plant Growth in Temperate Soil

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